JACK IN THE BOX SHOOTINGS

Black Leaders Want New Inquiry

Civil rights leaders called Tuesday for prosecutors to reopen their
investigation into the actions of two undercover drug detectives who killed
a suspect and his passenger in a car on the parking lot of the Jack in the
Box restaurant in Berkeley.

James Buford, president of the St. Louis Urban League, accused public
officials of withholding crucial information about what happened two years
ago from both the public and a St. Louis County grand jury.

"They have perpetrated a fraud upon the public," Buford said.

Robert P. McCulloch, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, said he has no
plans to reopen the investigation. "We've gone about as far as we can," he
said.

Buford made his comments after reading an account of the grand jury's
investigation in the Sunday Post-Dispatch. The account was based upon
previously secret tapes of testimony before the grand jury.

The tapes show that:

* Only three of the 13 detectives who testified said the suspect's car had
moved forward, in the direction of the two officers who shot him and his
passenger. In an hour and 45 minute interview April 8, McCulloch insisted
that "every witness who was out there testified that it made some forward
motion."

* Of those three, two were the shooters themselves. The third was a
detective with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who McCulloch now
says was "so far wrong" that he considered perjury charges.

* Four other detectives testified that they never saw the suspect's car
travel toward the officers.

* Prosecutors never brought independent evidence before the grand jury to
sort out who was right.

In addition, a nationally noted collision expert, who investigated the case
for the U.S. Justice Department, disclosed in an interview that the
suspect's car was always in reverse gear - added proof that it did not move
toward the detectives.

Buford said that since the shooting on June 12, 2000, police, the DEA and
prosecutors had released only those facts that made the detectives look
good. Buford said the officials have encouraged the public to believe that
the detectives had fired as the car was revving in forward gear toward them
but was held back by somehow getting caught on the bumper of a DEA vehicle
behind it.

"Now we learn that none of that happened," Buford said.

Buford, son of a St. Louis police officer, said his faith in the criminal
justice system has been shaken.

"I am disappointed and somewhat surprised," Buford said. "I have less faith
now than I did just a few days ago. Who do we trust if we can't trust the law?"

He said representatives of the Black Round Table, the Urban League and the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are writing
McCulloch to ask that he meet with them and reopen his investigation before
the county grand jury.

"And it needs to be presented in a truthful manner," Buford said of the
evidence.

Buford is a member of the Round Table, a group of about 50 black leaders,
and one of its founders.

McCulloch said that if Buford calls, "I'll be happy to meet with him."

He said he had no response to the disclosures about the grand jury's
investigation or to Buford's comments.

In an earlier interview, McCulloch said his prosecutors had presented all
the evidence to the grand jury.

He also said that it doesn't matter what the witnesses at the Jack in the
Box saw; all that matters legally, he said, is that the two detectives said
they feared for their lives.

Killed in the shooting were Earl Murray, 36, a suspected drug dealer the
officers intended to arrest, and Ronald Beasley, also 36, a passenger in
Murray's car whose identity was unknown to police. Drugs were found in the
car but no weapons.

A Dellwood police detective working for the county police drug unit and a
DEA agent fired 21 shots. They said they fired as Murray's car came toward
them.

DEA spokesman Tom Hinojosa said Tuesday, "It would be inappropriate to
comment." He pointed to a wrongful-death claim filed with the DEA by
Beasley's relatives and a threatened civil lawsuit.

Buford said Donald Wolff, a defense attorney who also is general counsel of
the Urban League, has volunteered to help families of Beasley and Murray
file civil lawsuits.

The Rev. Phillip Duvall, an official with the local office of the NAACP,
said St. Louis and St. Louis County both need civilian police review boards.

Buford agreed and said any civilian review board needs subpoena power and
"real teeth."

John Bordeaux, past president of the NAACP here, said he, too, was
surprised at the disclosures in the grand jury tapes, which he called "a
great service to the community."

He said the shooting illustrates why many blacks fear the police. "I pray
and hope that nothing like this ever happens to my family."